The Trial of Tom Petters Day 18

November 23, 2009

Day 18 of the trial of Tom Petters.

I arrived early to the courthouse today, but there was already a crowd of spectators lining up to watch the Government and the Tom Petters's attorneys give their final arguments.

Each side had ninety minutes with a short rebuttal for the Government.

First Assistant U.S Attorney John Marti said Petters's associates who had pled guilty and testified against Petters were, using defense attorney Jon Hopeman's words "instruments of darkness". But, Marti reminded the jury that Petters had admitted in his testimony that they were his instruments.

Marti played more tapes so the jury could again hear Petters admitting PCI was "one big fraud". Marti explained each of the twenty counts in the indictment and gave a summary of the evidence.

At the end, Marti reminded the jury of the small investors who testified about losing nearly all their money in the scheme and said the jury could "fix it" by convicting Tom Petters.

Petters's attorney Paul Enge talked about some of the evidence that could put a doubt in the Government's case, but there wasn't much. Enge filled up the rest of his statement with literary references from Samuel Becket to Gertrude Stein. Enge also mentioned Freud, Nietzsche, heuristics and cognitive dissonance.

Paul Enge's main point was that the jury should presume the defendant innocent until proven guilty as the Founding Fathers intended... Enge said that while jumping up and down for emphasis.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Rank gave a twenty minute rebuttal in which he turned the jury's attention back to the tapes and Petters own words that the purchase orders were fake.

After lunch, Judge Kyle read the jury instructions. The fate of Tom Petters now rests with the jury.